Former Liberian leader will be held in British jail if convicted of war crimes

The British government yesterday broke the international deadlock over the war crimes trial of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor by offering to imprison him if he is found guilty.

Mr Taylor would be one of the most high-profile foreign leaders to be held in a British jail since Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, was incarcerated before his transfer to Spandau prison in west Berlin. The former Chilean president Augusto Pinochet was also detained in Britain but under house arrest, not in jail.

The government is planning to put Mr Taylor, 58, in Belmarsh high-security jail.

The former warlord is accused of backing a rebel group in Sierra Leone responsible for killing an estimated 50,000 people during the 1991-2002 civil war and for chopping the limbs off tens of thousands of other men, women and children. At present he is being held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, awaiting trial along with eight others.

The Sierra Leone government, fearing a trial at home might lead to unrest or an attempt to free him, requested a trial at an unused courtroom at the international criminal court in The Hague. The Netherlands government agreed, but only on condition that, if found guilty, he be jailed in a third country. So far Austria, Denmark and Sweden have refused to take him.

Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, said yesterday that Britain had decided to respond positively to a request by Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, for Mr Taylor to serve a sentence in the UK.

She said: "My decision was driven by two compelling arguments. Firstly, that Taylor's presence in Sierra Leone remains a threat to peace in that region. Secondly, that we are demonstrating through concrete action the UK's commitment to international justice."

Mr Taylor faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He would be deported immediately on completion of his sentence, providing another country could be found, she said.

Parliament will have to pass a bill in the coming session to permit the imprisonment of Mr Taylor in Britain; existing laws cover only the UN courts, such as that for Rwanda. The Sierra Leone court does not fall under UN jurisdiction. Imprisonment of national leaders for crimes against humanity is a relatively new development, although various European countries have taken those convicted of crimes during the Balkans conflict. The US holds Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno, the former Panamanian leader, in jail in Miami, Florida, after he was tried for drug trafficking.

Britain played an active role in bringing the civil war in Sierra Leone to an end. Tony Blair sent troops to defend the airport near Freetown and the capital in 2000 when the country appeared about to fall to the Revolutionary United Front, the rebel group allegedly backed by Mr Taylor. The leader of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, Taylor allegedly sent drugged child soldiers into battle and mutilated and raped civilians in the neighbouring west African state.